<p>Okay...I have a somewhat hypothetical question here...</p>
<p>Girl from a poor farming family is accepted at MIT. She'd really love to go, but it's expensive. Financial aid isn't so great somehow, so she'd have to pay 40 thousand a year as well as graduate with 40 thousand in debt. It would be a bit of a struggle for the family, although they're willing to try to make it work.</p>
<p>Alternative is a full ride at a good state school. Her parents like the alternative.</p>
<p>So maybe it's not so hypothetical...well...I guess what I'm asking is how much is an MIT education worth? Is it worth all that debt and the hard times for the family? Would someone coming out of MIT be better equipped for life? Or is the state school a no-brainer?</p>
<p>Any opinions???</p>
<p>I answered how my daughter (who was accepted into the class of 2013) and my husband and I will pay for MIT [post=1062110471]here[/post].</p>
<p>As I say in that post, MIT was worth it for me. </p>
<p>I grew up in a sheltered blue collar community in Western Massachusetts where the parents of my friends worked in factories. At MIT, I met kids from all over the country and all over the world. In Boston and Cambridge, I tasted foods that I never knew existed. It was the first place I was surrounded by a bunch of overachieving science oriented women just like me. I now live and work in Silicon Valley on the other side of the country. I know that I would never have had the courage to move here if I hadn’t taken the first step to go to MIT. </p>
<p>My husband grew up on a farm in Michigan and has felt that MIT was the best thing he ever did as well.</p>
<p>As is mentioned in other posts, you should think about the the time that you are not in class and doing homework. That is part of your education too.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!! It’s good to hear that you were able to make it work. It sounds like people who went to MIT really liked it there and it shaped the rest of their lives, and I’m looking forward to that.</p>
<p>The girl in question should also consider that there are ways to reduce the burden of debt. If she’s taking out a Perkins loan, for instance, there are a number of government service programs in which she could work for a year or two after graduation, that provide partial forgiveness for Perkins loans. If she does a bit of research, she may be able to find some useful external scholarships to which she could apply. If she’s willing and eligible to serve as a commissioned Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine officer for a few years after graduation, she could get an ROTC scholarship which will pay the entire cost of MIT for her.</p>
<p>The other day, I talked with a friend who is MIT class of '03. She said that when she was advising her brother on college choices, she asked a bunch of people she knew, who were age 25-30 and had taken out 20K-70K in debt to attend MIT, whether, knowing what they knew 3-8 years out of college about how debt affects one’s life, they thought they had made the right decision in taking the debt and attending MIT. Every single one thought that they had made the right decision.</p>
<p>I happen to think, based on my experience and that of my friends, that MIT truly does equip smart people better for life than most schools. It provides a sort of challenge that smart people often have a difficult time finding, it gets rid of the arrogance that most have coming out of high school, it improves their social skills, it makes them better able to relate to people in general.</p>
<p>I received no aid as well, and my parents are helping out with 50% of the costs. I will work over the summer and already have applied for many scholarships and continue to do so, but have also taken out a 20K loan for this year. I think that MIT will be worth it.</p>
<p>I have a similar situation.</p>
<p>Is MIT worth an extra $150,000.00? I feel like I will make the same amount of money regardless of where I go to undergrad. I can graduate from a renowned larger public for $45,000.00 total. And if I want to go to med school without doing MD/PhD, that could be an extra $80,000.00-$200,000.00 on top of that. My parents have saved money but I feel bad spending it. And if I save or invest it, I can be making money without actually working. What about MIT will make it worth the extra money? Thanks!</p>
<p>The above post kinda reminds me of an article I read a couple months ago, which basically says that grad school “wipes out” undergrad. In other words, if you go deep into debt at MIT for undergrad, and have to go to a state med school because of the cost, congratulations – you’re a state school graduate for life. Whereas, if you take the reverse option and go to a state school for undergraduate and then Harvard Med, you’ll be a Harvard girl/boy.</p>
<p>But the problem is that you have to get into the prestigious grad school.</p>
<p>Anyway, my friends who went to med school didn’t choose based on cost. Med students are pretty much expected to take out loans to cover med school expenses.</p>
<p>I have not found that my undergraduate background has been irrelevant in graduate school.</p>
<p>To tinydancer: Have you considered going ROTC and then going for a HPSP med school scholarship?</p>
<p>At least among Ivy grads, conventional wisdom is that the graduate and professional programs [aka the “trade schools”] dont count. Since most of MIT is, in effect a trade school, not sure that applies here.</p>
<p>MIT is not a trade school. You come on here and you don’t know what you’re talking about at all. Why even bother?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, OP, there’s no way to know what you will get out of MIT. If you’re geared up to really take advantage of all it has to offer, and you got enough confidence in yourself to know that you can get through it, an MIT education can really be life-changing, and what price do you put on something like that?</p>